Starting a business is risky. It’s the reason why everyone doesn’t have one. It can require thousands of dollars of investment just to get off the ground. 9 out of 10 of all new businesses fail in the first year. Before any profit is made, things like product inventory, incorporation, advertising, employees, accounting, insurance, licenses, commercial space etc. have to be paid for.

Enter the internet..

The digital world has taken away a lot of the risk of starting the business of your dreams. There are still start-up expenses involved in the beginning but they are not nearly as high as starting a brick and mortar business. License and incorporation fees are going to have to be paid online or offline but most of the other expenses can be avoided in the early stages by starting with your online presence.

If it can be sold in a store it can be bought online and shipped to the customer’s home. At the very least it will add an additional revenue stream for the business. There are plenty of advantages to starting a but here are my top five.

1. There is no immediate need for full-time in-house employees.

What makes online business so powerful is its scalability; meaning you do a little bit of work for a greater result. With automation tools you can have a lot of your tedious data entry tasks done without you even thinking about it. With PayPal you can accept payments online through your website without you even knowing a credit card was entered.

If you are selling digital products that are to be downloaded then there is no need for pre-ordered inventory or commercial space, thus eliminating the cost of rent.

For when you actually need the assistance of a real human, sites like oDesk.com and Elance.com make it possible for you to outsource work to people on a for hire, monthly or even a full-time basis.

Things like insurance and security are needed for online as well as online but securing intellectual property stored online in the cloud is a lot less expensive than doing the same for merchandise in a store that is susceptible to theft or fire

2. You have the freedom to travel.

There is no need for a physical location in most cases so there is no need to stay in one place. If you need to pack up and move your company to another state where there is more opportunity, it can be as simple as packing up your laptop and accessories and leaving. With a physical ‘brick and mortar’ business, it would be a little more difficult to relocate. You will most likely be constrained to whatever lease agreement you may have in place.

As you know, business and tax laws vary from state to state. Having your operation online gives you the freedom to choose where you want your business to be incorporated. You would have to have some sort of address established in the state but it doesn’t have to an actual store. There are a few states who’s laws work best for the traveling internet entrepreneur. *I am not an accountant or a business lawyer so please consult one before getting started.*

3. The whole world has access to what you’ve got to offer.

You aren’t limited to your immediate geographical area anymore. You aren’t limited to ANY geographical area for that matter. Offering your products and services online opens your business offering up to the edges of the world. The internet doesn’t sleep and there are billions of people online looking for solutions to their problems, while YOU are sleeping.

4. You are at the fingertips of a growing online market.

The internet definitely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as more and more people are gaining access to an internet connection or a smart phone every second. E-commerce is following the same trend as more and more people are becoming comfortable making purchases online and from their mobile devices. From a consumer’s standpoint, making purchases from the comfort of your own home can save you a lot of time, and for certain products, shame or embarrassment.

5. You can inexpensively test your market.

Not every brilliant idea translates into a consumable product or service. And as you know, the failure rate of new businesses is very high. Another advantage of starting a is the ability to gauge interest without actually having the product readily available for sale. One example of this that I’ve seen a lot is a preview or ‘beta’ page with a prototype of a product where people can sign up to ‘be the first to know’ when the product is made available. This can be done with a food product, a clothing line, an app, pretty much anything. It’s a great way to gauge interest before you go all in with a final product.

You don’t need $10,000 to start a business anymore..

There are hundreds of ways to make money online and frankly, who can afford NOT to open up shop to the billions of people on the internet. There are still a lot of traditional brick and mortar businesses that are not providing their products and services online, constraining themselves by business hours and management of on premise staff.

All you need is a website, a product or service and consistent potential-buyer traffic to that website. No permits, no city council meetings, no weather constraints and depending on where you live, no off duty police officer.

You’ve come to the decision that buying a business or selling your business is the path that you want to take. The best piece of advice, although biased, I can offer is to retain the services of a business broker or business transfer adviser. Although business brokers usually work on behalf of the seller, there are sell-side business brokers and buy-side advisers. Even if you’re a buyer and you decide not to retain the services of a business broker or transfer adviser, you’ll receive the benefits because a business broker is working with the seller.

The broker is sort of like a clamp that holds things together as the business buyer and seller progress through the business transaction. Below I’m going to explain to you how both business seller and business buyer can and will benefit from the services of a business broker:

Let’s meet-

The good thing about the business broker is, the profession requires face to face meetings. Even though the broker is getting paid by the business seller, the buyer has to meet with the broker in order to view the business as well as so the broker can determine if the buyer is a compatible buyer for the business.

The meeting will be an interview style meeting. Some of the questions that will be asked by the broker are:

1- Can you go into detail about your background?

2- Have you ever purchased a business

3- Do you have easy access to the cash to buy a business?

4- Can you show proof of proceeds on a recent bank statement?

5- How soon are you willing to make a purchase?

In addition to the question and answer portion, you’ll also be given a personal financial statement to fill out and return. Be sure you return this information as soon as possible.

What usually takes place after this meeting is, the business broker will than present compatible business to the buyer. So come prepared with a recent bank statement showing the cash. Time is of great importance. Strike while the fire is hot and move with swiftness.

Expect for the broker to ask you to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The business seller wants to ensure that the word about the business being for sale is kept quite.

As the buyer, you’ll get to see very general financial information about the business of interest and others in the business broker has other businesses available. If you decide that you have serious interest in any of the businesses that are presented, the broker will provide you with more in-depth financial date and also arrange for you to see the business in person.

The broker will act of the best point of contact for the buyer. Any questions or concerns that the buyer may have, the broker can answer all questions concerning the business.

How the business broker helps the seller-

If you’re the owner of a business and you’ve decided to sell, one of the best services that you can retain are the services of a business broker. The broker will oversee the entire process while you continue to run your business.

The business broker will interview all of the buyers. This service by itself is worth the broker fee. Business brokers usually have access to a database of buyers that they’ve acquired over the years. These are buyers that have identified themselves are compatible and financially capable of buying a business. Having access to a list of buyers will speed up the process and help get the business sold while it’s still “hot.”

The business broker will especially prepare a marketing plan for the business in question. A sales prospectus will take time to prepare but your broker will provide you with this required document. In addition, the broker will structure the deal as well as assist the completion of the paper work.

Many owners don’t know how much their business is worth, therefore the broker can assist you with pricing your business. Te pricing of the business is just a starting point. The buyer will get an official appraisal. Between the 2 numbers, the negotiations will start there. Also, you want to ensure that your business is properly priced. You don’t want it to be overpriced not under priced A business that is priced right WILL SELL. The ultimate price of the business will be determined by what it sells for or as brokers like to say-the marketplace.

The business broker is one of the most important advisers that a seller can have on their transaction team. This broker will bring their years of experience to the table. This will help both buyer and seller and ensure both parties walk away happy.

Internet Business has skyrocketed in recent times. Everyone is looking for ways to make money online, build their own business from home, have time for their family and friends and fulfill a dream or ambition for their own success.

It is easier, cheaper and quicker to start and promote business today than it has ever been before. You can have a website and marketing started in under a hour. Social media means you can expand to audiences that 10 years ago you would never have dreamed of talking to. No longer do you have to lease a shop or spend huge amounts of money to get started – you can just begin with what you have, even if it’s nothing.

Isn’t that wonderful?

There is so much help and training available, so many ways for you to learn and prosper that it’s time to get going for yourself. Here are some reasons why I love to build businesses online;

1. The freedom to do something that you love

Imagine being your own boss, setting your own hours and establishing your own goals. Sharing with others those things that you absolutely love and are passionate about and at the same time generating an income.

Don’t underestimate how valuable your life experience is, your knowledge about how to do something, or how to get through a phase in life, or how certain products have really helped you. There are always people who are looking for direction, looking for what you can help them with.

The absolute freedom about it is, you don’t have to be the complete expert from day one, you can just start and learn to master the skills as you go.

2. You can run your business from wherever you want

Smart phones have made running a business ridiculously easy, from anywhere in the world (as long as you can get an internet connection at some point!). iPhones, iPads, laptops or even old computers can allow you to run your business from home, the local cafe, the train on the way to a football game or even while you’re in the waiting room at the dentist. Last year, I was on a cruise overseas that had ridiculously expensive internet, so I only connected once a day for 5-10 minutes to run my business. I was away for 10 days and other than dealing with a few emails, it all ran without me.

The creation of content that sells as product is hugely popular all over the internet right now. People want to learn everything. How to train their dog, how to get stains out of white clothes, how to build a website, how to survive grief when your child passes away; there is no limit now that the world is online. Your life experiences can help someone else, do not doubt it.

Digital product, once it is created, can be purchased and downloaded to any computer anywhere in the world. No shipping, no fuss. You don’t even have to create the product yourself – there is help available very inexpensively to do it for you.

By digital product I’m talking about writing an eBook, or a video series or a recorded message or interview. You can create online tele-seminars or write articles that can sold on Amazon. If you’re creative and technical you can help other people in their businesses online.

There are some companies that can turn your digital product into a physical product and ship it anywhere in the world for you, all online with no extra work from you.

If you’re not ready to create your own products to sell, sell other peoples products. You can set up an affiliate seller account and receive a commission for marketing and selling other peoples products. No start-up cost, no technical knowledge needed, just some time and effort to get going.

4. The cost of starting can be very low

Where else can you start a business virtually for free? If you really have no money at all, you can start on some of the free blogging platforms like Blogger, or Tumblr, or WordPress.org, even eBay is free to join to start selling from. This is really not my personal preference, and I don’t advise it as a business strategy.

If you really want to build something that will give you an income and the freedom you want over the long-term, then for a small fee you can buy a name and build your own website with a few clicks – it doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to start. For about $10-12 you can buy your own domain name (the name of your website), to host your website can cost you from $4 to 8 per month, you can install a website at the click of a button and away you go.

There are so many cheap, quick ways to get going.

5. Set your own work hours – let the internet work for you while you’re out living

Once you’ve managed to set up something and there are some systems in place, you really do not need to be there all the time. You certainly don’t need to be working 40, 50, 60 hour weeks unless that’s what you want to do. I know some people who literally work 4-10 hours a week on their business and they are earning six figure incomes. Internet marketing is the perfect industry for those systems to do a lot of the work for you, it’s all about leveraging what you’ve created.

6. Any job you can think of, someone else can do it for you

There is a term that is used a lot on the internet for this, it’s called ‘outsourcing’. Basically all that means is someone else can build your website, or write an article for you, or create the listings on Ebay or make a pretty picture header for your Facebook business page.

All of these things require some knowledge of how to do them and not everyone can do all of it – and really, why would you want to when you can hire someone $10-20 an hour to write you a whole page article, that probably would have taken you all day to get the words on paper. You don’t have to be technical about your website, you can outsource the bits you struggle with. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know or don’t think you can do, help is available.

7. Learn valuable skills that are transferable

No matter how old or how young you are, you can absolutely learn new skills online. It is all within you, the ability to learn and create is just waiting for an outlet. You might learn how to write emails to people so that they feel a connection with you and your product or service. Maybe you’ll learn how to install your own WordPress blog (it’s easy, really, you can do it). There are so many skills you can learn by creating an online business that it can even help you improve your chances of other forms of employment.

I know sometimes it can be overwhelming, and you feel a little intimated or fearful of knowing where or how to start but don’t let your feelings hold you back from the future you could have. You can start something easily and cheaply by yourself and just learn as you go, or if you want to have a faster chance of success then find some training, work with a mentor – do everything you can to move forward.

Right now is the best time ever to create the life and business you deserve. Don’t delay, don’t think you don’t have time or resources, your dream is at stake, your freedom and sense of fulfilment is in your hands, let’s do this thing.